History of Taxidermy
Stuffed animals bring images of childhood and security, a favourite teddy bear to snuggle up to at night or someone to comfort you in times of crisis. Cute and fluffy, Ted was always there for you, he never told you off and remained true even when he was ripped and raggedy.
Others, however, see stuffed animals as trophies or mounts which hang on a wall in aristocratic days gone by. Although many might have this image of stuffed animals, taxidermy is more accessible to the general public with many paying top dollars for not only a deer head to be mounted but for Fido or Mittens to be immortalised in a pose-able shape, forever.
The industry may be going through a renaissance because of people who now stuff Fido; however, the process of taxidermy is thousands of years old.
Thousands of years ago when man starting hunting for food, a usable by-product from the dead beast was its skin and fur, after trial and error certain substances were found to preserve the leftovers. Skins could be used for housing and shaped containers, while fur became an invaluable resource for warmth and clothing. Over many thousands of years the many ways of tanning skins became more refined, with the tanner becoming one of the most important members of their tribe.
As demand grew for quality leather, methods become more sophisticated and by the 1700's every small town and village had a tanning business, where the tanner became an important member of the landscape. Killing animals for decoration and trophies rather than survival had its hay day through the 18 to 20th centuries, where stuffing became all the rage.
Stuffing or stuffed animals was a crude form of taxidermy of the 1800's. People would bring in there trophies, or dead animals, to upholsterers who would literally skin the animal and stuff it with cotton and rags. This effect was crude and affected the life of the 'mount'.
Mounting as taxidermists like to call the trophies, evolved within the 20th century to its modern form under the leadership of such America taxidermists as Carl E Akeley whose African elephants are in the America Museum of Natural History.
Taxidermists such as Akeley developed anatomically accurate manikins, where minute facial and mussels that created almost uncanny replications of the dead animal. Work for these mounts allowed them to be seen in natural and realistic settings and poses.
Realism is now what people strive for when looking to mount an animal and what taxidermists now wish their work to display. Taxidermy today as turned into a full-fledged form of wild life art, with some taxidermists considered artists in their own right. Modern taxidermists use modern materials to recreate the insides of the animal, with the skin covering to create the life-like replication.
Many pet owners are the new clients for taxidermists, wanting a replication of Fido or mittens to sit on the mantel forever. While some people are willing to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for a cloned pet many are happy to have their animal stuffed.
From the humble beginnings of animal skins and fur wraps, taxidermy produces life-like replications, which try to show animals in their natural poses and environment. For many generations to come taxidermy will be seen in many house hold's, like the old soft toy, ripped and raggedy soft and fluffy before you got them stuffed and put on the mantel.
Two NZ taxidermists can be found on the following web sites
John McCosh
http://wairarapa.co.nz/kahutara/taxidermy.html
Terry Jacobs
http://www.taxidermy.co.nz/
Carmel Graham-Williams
I am 22-years-old and a journalism student in Hamilton.
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